Hot Press is gearing up to celebrate an exclusive Josh Ritter Week on hotpress.com. Things kick off today, April 22, as the new issue of Hot Press, featuring Josh Ritter on the cover and a brilliantly revealing interview with the Idaho hero by Peter Murphy inside, hits the streets.

The Hot Press Newsdesk, 21 Apr 2010

This article is now part of the hotpress.com archive. To access this article you need to subscribe to hotpress.com for the bargain price of €20 or be a subscriber to Hot Press Magazine.
The hotpress.com archive has over 40,000 articles in it, growing at well over 500 a month. Not only that, but you get special 'member's cds' for €10, discounts on all hotpress related products and exclusive promotions. hotpress.com also has thousands of articles and pieces of content that are free to access to anyone, including it's latest music news, photo galleries, web exclusive interviews.

When his marriage ended suddenly, Josh Ritter lost his way. He started drinking and wandering the streets. The only way to arrest the downward spiral was to pour his pain into his songs. The result is his most torrid album to date. He talks about the genesis of The Beast In Its Tracks and how he managed to banish the despair and build a new life...

After years of thankless toil, Josh Ritter finally had the world at his feet. And then, just as he should have been at his happiest, he suffered a sudden crisis of confidence. Sick of the sound of his own voice, the Idaho bard felt trapped in an artistic prison he himself had devised. His struggle for freedom is chronicled on his wrenching new album, perhaps the finest of his career. Hot Press meets him in New York to discuss the long road to redemption.

With a year’s worth of grandiose orchestral gigs behind him, Ireland’s sweetheart and son of Idaho Josh Ritter was enveigled into celebrating Whelan’s 20th birthday with three shows in a stripped down acoustic format.

It’s been a tumultuous few years for Josh Ritter. Against the dramatic backdrop of the Swiss Alps, he talks about his number one fan Stephen King, recalls the day he met Bob Dylan and explains why it’s never a good idea to drink before a show

The lean, hobo visionary of old is gone: in his place is a suited bandleader, and his new song is almost brilliant. The sound is very Band-era Dylan, and Josh’s quicksilver lyrics evoke the same swirl of images the Big Zim’s always did. While the solo is wonderfully commanding, the ‘70s soft-rock chorus feels like a downward gear-shift from the verse. And so, once again, Ritter lacks the stratosphere-catapulting single he’s been looking for.

An Ireland-only release to coincide with his upcoming Electric Picnic appearance, this EP is a must-have for fans of the Idaho songwriter. It’s essentially Ritter and his acoustic guitar on most of the tracks. Included is a cover of Modest Mouse’s ‘Blame It On The Teutons’. There are also two previously unreleased originals, ‘Harbortown’ and ‘Peter Killed The Dragon’, a gorgeous number that sees Ritter exploring his fascination with religious imagery.

The holy and austere surroundings only rendered that night's performance that much more powerful. It was certainly a lightning bolt moment for this listener, who hitherto always found himself torn between liking Mr Ritter and being exasperated at the transparency of his influences (Bruce, Leonard, Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt).

Running a marathon, writing the folk-pop equivalent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, buying a house, releasing the finest record of his career. All in a year’s work for Josh Ritter. John Walshe travelled to Boston to meet the young songwriter.

He’s officially your favourite international male artist and songwriter, according to the last issue’s readers poll. And Josh Ritter’s working goddamn hard to ensure the accolades are merited. This is a thigh-slapping country-tinged affair that even has a ‘na na’ chorus in it. It’s impossible to resist its cheery charms, so don’t even try.

Josh Ritter never did anything for me. A patchy debut and an over-rated follow up only served to increase my amazement as to how he had become so successful in this country. Tonight though, I may have begun to come around.

While it would have been good to hear his own ramshackle brand of Americana given a meatier treatment, it can’t be denied that he does have some fine tunes in his canon and a winning way of delivering them.